. [ male announcer ] celebrate every win with nicoderm cq, the unique patch with time release smartcontrol technology that helps prevent the urge to smoke all day long. help prevent your cravings with nicoderm cq. from nbc news in washington, the world's longest-running television program, this is i am extraordinary disappointed by this. but this is the exception. it is not the rule of what's happened over the last four years in this administration. >> what a week of politics playing defense, new jersey governor chris christie right there responding to the bridge scandal rocking his administration, raising questions of the impact on a possible presidential run in 2016. good sunday morning. special program for you this sunday. the nastiness of politics and the rough and tumble of government, as well.

politics and punishment, is bridge-gate simply an example of the every day retribution in the world of government or did the governor set the tone and create the culture that led to the scandal? truth or betrayal? tough questions in washington, as well. and robert gates book is raising doubts of president obama and vice president biden's foreign policy leadership at a crucial time for the united states in the world. is the former defense secretary right in speaking out while thigh're still in power? the toll of poverty. millions of women struggling with dual roles as breadwinners and caregivers. maria shriver is here why women are on the economic brink. groundbreaking work she's done and the unique pressures women face. i'm here with chuck todd. mark halperin who wrote about

the '28 campaign and "double down" and christie. democratic mayor of baltimore, stephanie rollins-blake, secretary of the democratic national committee, as well. and kim strassle from "the wall street journal." so here's the latest on what we know. this sunday morning about the bridge scandal. there's been no smoking gun found yet. no e-mails or correspondence that link governor christie directly to the scandal. the documents show knowledge of the closures by closest aides. the motive is a bit unclear. investigations continue at the federal and the state levels. let me bring you everybody. chuck todd, the questions still on sunday morning, how much did chris christie know? >> why didn't he know more? right? there isn't a good answer for

him either way because the defense right now is i'm a hands off manager. i did a lot of delegation. well, then that raises the question of culture and then actually becomes the bigger impact on him as a potential presidential leader. you're testing him as a presidential candidate. so far, you read the e-mails. there clearly is not a direct connection to the governor. near term, this is a survivorible quote/unquote scandal as far as the governance of the state of new jersey is concerned but everything it raises it does make you question what his -- whether he can -- has the judgment, whether he's got the culture that bring in, leadership ability to be president of the united states. >> let's remind everybody, the key e-mail. a lot of players and e-mails and this is the key one from the deputy chief of staff to an official at the port authority and it's cryptic in its nature. august 13th. time for some traffic problems in ft. lee.

here's what's amazing is that both parties know exactly what they're talking about and the response is immediate. but chris christie on thursday in this epic press conference, kim, responds with this. >> i had no knowledge or involvement in this issue, in the planning or execution. and i am stunned by the abject stupidity that was shown here. >> better be telling the truth because when you come out and you are that definitive, if anything does surface going forward that suggests that he does know, i mean, that is a game changer in this. look, i think to what chuck said, this is not -- i mean, this has to be put in perspective. this is not watergate. this is not the irs targeting of last year. in fact, it's not even if you think about this as a raw display of political power, it's not even this white house using

this sequester and the shutdown to inconvenience millions of americans as they did, too, to make a political point. this is a teachable moment for governor christie because going forward this is a level of scrutiny from here on out and continuing to run for the presidency. and so, he is going to have to up the level of staff that surround him and make sure that some of the things that came out of here, these questions, is he a bully? does he have competent management? he can't afford to have another example oaf those happen and he has to re-evaluate who's working for him and make sure it's not a theme. >> mayor blake, you see that you are a politician. you are a mayor. you know as well as anybody politics ain't bean bag and traffic matters to people. it has a real impact on people's lives. what is this and what is it not at this point for governor christie? >> i'm loathe to criticize

governor christie. when you set up this -- >> maybe you hurt him with republicans by praising him. >> well, when you set up this culture of callousness and when you have a history of telling people to go, you know, blank themselves and calling reporters idiots and things like that, you can't play it both ways. he set himself up as a gruff person that sort of, you know, plays by his own rules when it comes to being rough and tumble and the way that he trooets people so when you see the e-mail by one of his closest staff, it's hard to believe someone after months and months of people talking about it he doesn't know about it? he didn't want to know. at this level, at this scrutiny, that doesn't work anymore. >> he says when these things come out, mark halperin, everybody's got an hour to tell me whether we were involved. what he doesn't say is tell me everything at every level.

i'm a former u.s. attorney. i want everything on this before i go out there tomorrow. >> it's some ways more important than the press conference from last week he was not only remarkably incurious about what happened, he was dismissive and tried to real reporters stop telling this story. >> can we play a piece of tape from that december press conference? he is dismissive, making jokes. >> i work the cones, matt. i was out there. i was in overalls and a hat but i actually was the guy working the cones out there. >> continue. >> let's talk about the investigation. we don't know if there's a federal investigation of any stance. we look at the committee and think it's a congressional committee with lots of subpoena power. depositions, big staff. this is an operation run by the assemblyman by the transportation committee and subpoenaed documents from the port authority side and not the governor's side. he said we want to get to the bottom of this.

i think we're headed to a new jersey constitutional crisis. very little precedence of a committee trying to subpoena a governor. will this governor hand everything over including his own e-mails and provide testimony? the top aides or assert executive privilege. i think that is a real moment of crisis for him in terms of 2016 because we've seen presidents have this problem. you say you want to cooperate fully but when they say, chris christie, we want everything you've had -- kim said he better be right. i have been stunned in the calls this week to republicans and conservatives and watching people on twitter, big supporters of christie, everyone says he better be telling the truth if he is. no one is taking him at his word and even republicans huge supporters say, well, if he is telling the truth he is fine. that is a striking situation. >> this -- i think there's part of this for me that's so interesting is understanding the dna of chris christie as a

politician, as a leader. by the way, these were top aides. you pointed out in "first read" this is the equivalent of a david plouffe. >> these are people that are very tight. in many ways bridget is running operationally parts of the state. >> to that point, he is asked about what does it say about him during this press conference. i want to show that response. this is what sticks out to me. >> what does it make me ask about me? it makes me ask about me what did i do wrong to have these folks think it was okay to lie to me? and there's a lot of soul searching that goes around with this. >> can i take the step back? if he were not a potential presidential candidate, we didn't view him this way and this whole thing happened, we would say, well, that's jersey. that's the culture of jersey. jersey politicians, run very --

there are a lot of thiefdoms and always been this way and talking about culture, what's the culture he set, honestly, it offends people in new jersey in politics but there's a past culture of this -- you know, you rule with an iron fist. sort of old-school politics and i think he -- this is the way he ran things, too. it's what everybody does in jersey. >> chris christie, should he run for president, one of the biggest selling points is going to be a competent executive of a big state. okay? that's why this is a particularly big question for him. who did he have around him? are they managing -- ready for prime time. is he telling the truth? this is about -- i mean, this is why this issue is a problem, as well. is that we are living at a time when americans have a lot of fear about government and whether or not government can be trusted. you're talking about the irs,

the nsa flap that's been going on. the justice department looking at journalists. people abusing the power and authority and so there has to be a level of confidence among americans that chris christie isn't among that type of person. >> and at this level, people want to know you're doing the right thing whether people are looking or not. that's where he falls into trouble because when people weren't looking, he was full of denials until the light got shined on and now all of a sudden he's contrite and looking inward. that's what people expect of their executives, public officials when no one's looking. >> do you look at that two hours as taking every question, do you think that level of crisis management was effective as a leader, as a mayor? >> i think he did the best thing on that day in december he should have been asking more questions than he did. that was a joke and to think with all of that scrutiny that he says i don't know -- now he says there's nothing, i don't know anything. he chose to turn a blind eye to what his closest advisers were doing.

and he has to live with that. as a reflection of his leadership. >> he plays by his own rules and sometimes people find that extraordinarily appealing. he didn't hand in everything on a timely basis for the vetting of mitt romney. he gets bad reviews and brings the romney campaign kind of to a halt complaining that he thought they were leaking. you look at the way he runs the office. the reason people think he might not be telling the full truth is anyone in a republican governor's meeting, he plays by his own rules. that can be appealing and people realize that means in the context of new jersey, sometimes things go wrong. >> more from all of you in a minute. i want to turn here. joined now by the mayor of fort league, mark sokolich. it was his town that suffered four lanes of gridlock and met personally on thursday with governor chris christie. this is what he said after that meeting. >> we view his appearance here as very productive.

it was a very productive meeting. it was a cardinal meeting. really, the most important concern that we had or i have on behalf of ft. lee and the council are to make sure that this never, ever happens again in the future. we were unconditionally unequivocally provided with that assurance. >> welcome to "meet the press." >> thank you, david. >> i want to ask you about that meeting specifically. did you put pressure on governor christie? is there a question that he didn't answer satisfactorily for you? >> i think the beginning of the meeting was basically a mini version of the press conference and unconditionally expressed that he had absolutely no knowledge or no involvement whatsoever in this plot. we then went on to request that he provide us with adequate assurance that ft. lee and the area will never, ever experience this again. >> do you believe him?

>> i take him at his word. i've said that now repeatedly. you know, initially he wanted to come up. i was discouraging of that. i thought in light of the ongoing investigations allow them to ripen a little bit more and then come up but you know what? ft. lee will open their arms to a sitting governor. he came. he was candid. i thought it was a productive conversation so, again, i take him at his word. there is a lot of stuff out there, though. >> this weekend, talk about a lot of stuff out there. more e-mails have come to light and want to show young in a second that's a key one from a port authority official, christie appointee to one of governor christie's top advisers for all of the authorities, port authority, other authorities within the state. and it's about the lane closures and he is saying i will get to the bottom of this abusive decision that violates everything the agency stands for. this is a port authority official who's making it very clear that he thinks this is an

abusive decision and that conclusion as the lanes are reopened back in september of last year is getting to top christie advisers. so my question to you, do you think he knew then that he knew more than he was saying just a couple of days ago that he knew? >> the issue is whether he knew but if he didn't know he certainly should have known and that's the catch-22 here. that e-mail what you just read came from executive director pat foye. i have understood that the governor ran a very, very tight ship, very tight ship in the sense that he was in control of a lot of things and he would review everything and made sure that anything his name was even remotely involved in he was involved in so, you know, look. it's a different pill to swallow. i will tell you. you know what? i'm a jersey guy. i don't appreciate the political jokes. i signed up to build little

league fields and lower taxes. i don't want to be the brunt of a joke. i'm taking him at his word, david. i really am. >> taking him at his word. >> i'm not sounding naive but -- >> he insists looking at the support of democrats and including 20 democratic mayors in new jersey, he insists he is not a bully. do you agree with that? >> based on what i heard, i would take issue with that. i would. i mean, now what we're hearing and the other unrelated stories to the george washington bridge closure, i would probably -- he's certainly tough. he's certainly hard. he's certainly strict. whether it rises to bully i'll leave that to your judgment. he's tough and outspoken and a lot of this he brought upon himself. i eat not sure that the attention is the case if he hadn't conducted himself the way that the office is. >> all right. i appreciate your time this

morning. >> thank you, david. >> i want to turn to the larger issue of 2016. governor christie's prospects for a possible run. after re-election, the national press labeled him a front-runner. a cover of "time" magazine called him the elephant in the room. will the scandal impact future republican support? here's the chairman of the republican party. you might be cautious about weighing this on this. as a close political observer, is this a test of leadership for the chairman? here's what a mentor tom "the washington post." this is tom kane speaking who's known christie since the current governor was a teenager. faulted him for cry yating a culture which no one will ever say no to him and that's dangerous and christie's approach is overly aggressive and agenda is personal. is this a leadership problem for the governor?

>> no. in fact, i think what you saw the other day was leadership, was something that showed that, look. everyone is fallible, david. i'm fallible. you are. everyone on these panels. we all make mistakes but the real question is what do you do when mistakes happen? he admitted mistakes happened, he trusted people that lied to him. america's a forgiving people. but they're forgiving when you ownership, you admit mistakes, you take corrective action. and that's what chris christie showed. he stood there for 111 minutes in an open dialogue with the press. now, only if barack obama and hillary clinton would give us 111 seconds of that would we find out some things to find out about obamacare, benghazi, the irs. chris christie is totally open here. >> you have said about the president and the irs scandal and no direct thigh, of course, to what happened at the irs to the president, just as there's

not been a direct tie to governor christie here but you said then about the president he set a tone for these things to happen. is that true here? is that true here? did governor christie set a tone where the people who exacted this act of petty political retribution thought the boss would acquies? >> here's what he did and admitted. he admitted he trusted people that lied to him and he's asking a lot of questions about himself as far as why that happened. >> the question i ask -- >> wait a minute. >> did he set a tone? that's what you said the president did. >> no, no. here's -- he trusted people that lied to him and he fired those people. the president doubles down on eric holder. he doubles down on hillary clinton. and lois lerner and rice. >> you said in may of -- you brought up the president and the irs as a comparison. there's no denying, he, the

president, created a culture in his administration that encouraged the targeting of these groups. there's no evidence to prove that. that's your assertion. >> right. >> if that's your assertion about tone there, why isn't it true of governor chris christie? >> chris christie gave us almost two hours of open dialogue and open -- >> how's that affect the culture? >> cross-examination with the press. you can judge a person, the character. we had an opportunity to do that. and so that's what chris christie offered not only to the people of new jersey but to people across the country. the president never offered that open dialogue to the people to determine the character of the president. >> you've given him a close look. you are chairman of the party. you dig in on these things. how would a rogue operation like this spring up underneath about his feet or those people close to him and for a long time thinking it would be okay if we did this? >> well look. the new jersey is a huge, complicated government and so's the port authority.

people made decisions at the port authority they shouldn't have made and they're gone. the person that oversaw at least in part some of the decisions that the part authority seemed to have apparent knowledge of what was going on, she's gone. after the fact, the campaign manager made comments that were callous and chris christie department like it. he's gone. >> there's been no direct link made to governor christie. do you think there will be? >> no. i don't think so. we have a smart person in chris christie who's a former u.s. attorney and understands what's out there and thousands and thousands of documents have been revealed and not one single link to chris christie has been found. >> let me ask you about your potential opponents for the republican party in 2016. that's hill hi. we'll talk more about the robert gates book. he writes in part about this in afghanistan. hillary clinton told the president that her opposition to the 2007 surge in iraq had been political because she was facing him in the iowa primary. the president conceded vaguely

that opposition to the iraq surge was political. to hear them in front of me was a surprising as it was dismaying. certainly liberal progressives may have a view of her opinion. how do you view it? >> she's a political person and the country is starving for real, authentic people to serve this country with a pure heart and reading about hillary clinton, examine her life, they question it. and i think that this is something that is going to be potentially on the ballot coming 2016 and surround hillary clinton wherever she goes. is she real? authentic? genuine? does she want to serve the country with a pure heart? i think she is political and robert gates shows that once again. >> back on the republican side, is christie did a front-runner or face a responsibility problem? >> we have a lot of good candidate that is are at least percolating right now and i've got a couple from my own state of wisconsin, so i think we have

a great xwench. we are a young, fresh party and we'll see what happens. >> chairman, thanks as always. >> thank you, david. >> we'll take a break here. coming up, more on the fallout from the bridge scandal and the response. >> i hope that the public isn't influenced to discard the guy over something like that. >> presidential ambition. one of the first tests of the 2016 campaign will be iowa. how is the new jersey governor playing with voters there? we went to the hawkeye state to find out. plus, a bombshell tell-all casting doubt on president barack obama's leadership from a member of his roundtablement its the memoir of robert gates. struggling to escape the throws of poverty. why tens of millions of women are on the brink. my colleague joinls me with details of her new report. it's all coming up. [ female announcer ] who are we?

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were back. so how is the christie scandal we are back. iowa is a critical test for republicans. the awe kuss there kick off the race for the white house in 2016. we sent john yang to the hawkeye state to see if bridge-gate is having an impact. >> reporter: at the machine shed restaurant in iowa, the monthly meeting of the ruby rebels, two topics are out of bounds. religion and politics. for us, they made an exception. what do you think of what's going on with chris christie? >> well, i any it's very interesting. i can't imagine that he could be clueless when you shut down a major bridge. >> reporter: glenda dawson is a registered democrat saying he sometimes votes republican. >> i don't think that plays very well. no matter what party you are on. >> reporter: georgia's peerson's view has changed. >> i thought he had been

bipartisan maybe and to fine out that this was a very political thing really changed my opinion. >> reporter: the road to the white house begins here in iowa. but could gridlock on the george washington bridge block a christie run? republican david rinder says the whole thing is silly. >> it's so strange that you think messing with someone's drive to work is going to be retribution to maynor. seems sort of comical and made up. >> reporter: independent tom blue agrees. >> you know, it is so hard to cultivate a presidential candidate and i hope that the public isn't influenced to discard the guy over something like that. >> reporter: christie's no stranger to iowa having come pained here for mitt romney in 2012. >> thank you, mitt. >> reporter: last month's iowa poll found that 51% of iowa republicans have a favorable view of christie.

putting him in the top tier of potential candidates. a republican strategist calls christie a front-runner. >> he's under a microscope here and it plays here. it is going to be important here and so iowans continue to watch and see how he responds. >> reporter: 2016 could be different. though a moderate, christie's combative style appeals to some. >> he is a rock star to republicans who are hungry for someone who will take their message and hammer it home. i mean, that was his main appeal that he was a guy that would take no prisoners. >> reporter: analysts here say one thing working in christie's favor is that the caucuses are two years away. plenty of the time for the governor to try to put this behind him unless there's more damaging disclosures to come. david? >> john, thank you so much.

never too early for you to ask political questions in iowa. i appreciate your time this morning. back to the roundtable. chuck, you always say, look, to be president temperamentally you have to go through the midwest and sent yjohn to get that visceral take. >> will jersey play in the midwest in the road to the white house goes through the midwest. it's general election. and always the candidate with that american demeanor, usually a southerner or the case of barack obama midwestener. he's on an island. >> you think about iowa, the early states. you think about ideology and the process. how much is personality more important than ideology for him? >> personality is huge. by the way, that is a big attraction for a lot of people. >> yeah. absolutely. >> don't forget. i don't think anyone should

underestimate a little bit of what was said. the fact he came out this week and immediately fired people and took responsibility, it's not something everyone sees in government all the time and that may play well for some people. >> thanks to all of you for an interesting discussion. we'll take a break here. coming up next, questions of leadership that bombshell new memory of robert gates has the administration on the defensive. and is there some collateral damage to hillary clinton, as well? roundtable is coming back. new players to discuss that after this break.

we asked you on facebook this morning to let us know your

thoughts on the christie bridge scandal. a new jersey newspaper put it, are the 2016 chances toast? or just a minor hiccup? let us know at facebook.com/meetthepress. we're back in a minute. [announcer] word is getting out. purina dog chow light & healthy is a deliciously tender and crunchy kibble blend. with 20% fewer calories than purina dog chow. isn't it time you discovered the lighter side of dog chow. purina dog chow light & healthy.

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we are back. new folks on the rountable. two big stories. new jersey governor and the bridge scandal. but also, this bombshell tell-all book by robert gates. i'm joined by robert gibbs, former press secretary for president obama, present at the time. former republican presidential candidate rick santorum. former congresswoman of california, and host of "hardball" chris matthews. i want to ask whether gates was trigt do this while the president's still in office in just a moment. but i want the substance, the debate about the president's leadership in national security affairs, particularly afghanistan. here's a key excerpt from the book. gates writing about the march 2011 meeting in the situation room in afghanistan. the issue was a troop withdraw deadline. as i said there, the i thought, the president doesn't trust his

commander, can't stand afghan president hamid. for him it's all about getting out. chris, how scathing is this of obama's leadership? >> it has a certain tone to it but i think he is right in the sense that president obama ran on the campaign do get us out of afghanistan. that was his mission. there's nothing wrong with that. he makes it sound like there's something wrong with that. the policy of the president coming into office, got into office is wind down two wars. he did so. maybe that's not gates' point of view but it's obama. >> it is clear, robert gibbs, i'm reading the book and think soft m some of the press coverage is overwritten. he's critical of you -- >> i think he intimated i was the deputy secretary of defense. >> okay. he's critical of that interagency process. in other words, that there was a feeling that the president himself had that the military trying to jam him on the idea of surging up forces in afghanistan. >> i think one of the things you

take away at least from the excerpts of the book is bob gates doesn't like any questions about bob gates, whether they're from members of congress, whether they're from civilians. in the west wing or in the national security agency. look. barack obama was and i assume continues to be skeptical of our military ability to solve afghanistan. we have been in afghanistan now longer than we have been in any foreign land conducting a war in our nation's history. was this president and was the team at white house skeptical of mission creep? every day that i was there and i would be shocked if it hasn't been every day since i left. the president wanted a smaller surge of troops limited in time to put pressure on the afghans to have to solve their problem while we decimated al qaeda. that's what he decided and what gates supported in a book that the "post" called madingly self

contradictory. >> michael moore, rick -- >> they go together. >> that's why i'm putting together. here's something he tweeted this week. bob gates says obama appointees in the white house were suspicious of and didn't trust the military honchos. thank gd. >> the larger point of the book is the fact the president puts domestic politics before international concerns. that comment that was quoted about hillary and the president about why they opposed the surge and it is all about -- from an outsider, i'm not inside. robert may have obviously a very different perspective. from the outside everything seems to be driven as to how to pull it back to domestic politics and not about trying to solve the problems. >> go ahead. >> no, no, no. i have to issue a small -- i just read the book. he doesn't say that about the president. he says politics does come into

the conversation but he says specifically in terms of the president, maybe not some of the operati operatives, the president makes decisions base and the national security. you are right about the overwritten coverage. robert gates says specifically i agree that the president made the right decisions on the primary questions on afghanistan so the scandal is not quite as much as of a scandal as people think. >> why are we shocked that the elected president of the united states who is a politician would consider politics? he is also by the way the commander in chief. it is not gates. it is not the head of the military in the pentagon. it is the president who under the constitution's the commander in chief. and so, he is the one who needs to be making these decisions. i haven't read the book. most of us probably haven't. i've read the excerpts and probably not as nuanced of the book as jeffrey has. i wish he had waited to write the book for two reasons. number one, i think he would have thought differently but i don't think it's so cool to

write a book about in the term of the guy you serve especially with the medal of freedom and i hope that leon panetta will wait. >> would you write a book? >> marlin fitzwater told me before i became press secretary, you should not write a book that your boss has to answer to while he's in office and i wouldn't write a book while he is in office. look. gates made his own decision. let me address the politics of this. i think if you look at every national security decision that surrounded 13 meetings on afghanistan, there wasn't one decision that if you looked whereat the american people were, putting another 33,000 american troops in afghanistan, that was even remotely politically popular. the war right now as unpopular as anything going in america right now. the notion that the president and i think this is why, again, it's maddeningly self contradictory, gates puts in

front that politics driving the decisions and every decision of the president contradictory to the politics of the moment. >> gates does give him credit for that, bucking not just the politics but the political advice he was given. >> i would say that the president when he ran first time said that the war we need to win is afghanistan. right? so don't say that he was not doing things consistent with the political agenda. they were. and the things that i have the most problems with -- >> the good war. >> the good war. but -- >> the problems i have with this administration are left of administration than iraq when we pulled out of iraq because it was politically popular to pull out of iraq and not leave us -- >> let me get a comment from chris on this. >> look at the text of what dwaets said, he said that hillary clinton said the politics in the campaign against obama in the caucuses in iowa especially driven by politics and did think the surge worked and then the president. it doesn't say he acknowledged or conceded that his politics --

first of all, he was totally against the iraq war and the surge, consistently. so the way people reading this is double barrelled and a shot against hillary, not obama. >> in iraq, the surge probably worked because of an indigenous pushback against the forces of the radicals and the surge. i didn't support the surge in congress or counter insurgency and i had the views personally to dave petraeus. >> there's another figure harsh treatment in this book and that's the vice president, joe biden. and he writes the following, gates does. put it up on the screen while i get to the notes. i think he's been wrong on nearly every major foreign politpol politician other than that. other than that, he is --

>> the book is wonderfully passive aggressive. you're terrible but i love everything about you. no. i mean, you know, going to this point of hillary, i don't even think hillary is a target. he goes out of the way to praise her as a primary partner in this administration. he has a couple of shots, you know, she is not going to appreciate that business about the surge. joe biden gets it in the neck in this. his good friend joe biden gets it in the neck and most of the staff. what's so interesting about this book and yet you have to read it to get this feeling, this is a seemingly placid man boiling with rage this entire time in this administration. >> which is right. i want to make a turn here because the christie story is so interesting and so many people are talking about it and rick, i have to ask you, we were in iowa. you won iowa in 2012. i'm making sure i have my year right. the question is, if you run

again in 2016 and on the debate stage with chris christie what's the question you put to him about this? >> you have to compliment him for facing the issue which is, again, what i agree with reince. what the president did not do with the struggles he's had and conflicts. chris christie manned up and took it on and was decisive. i have several concerns about it and one of the concerns i have is the -- a good friend of mine used to tell me personnel is policy and the people that you hire are the policy that is are implemented and what we have seen is two, three, four -- i mean, i don't know how many more come out that's very clear that the personnel there was not sensitive to what seemed to be a fairly obvious wrong thing to do. >> right. chris, it is interesting.

republicans have been very quiet about this. some of the more harsh criticism is he was done in conservative eyes when he put the arm around barack obama in hurricane sandy. that's what you have heard over and over again this week. >> i've always liked christie's style. i like the none of your business kind of thing. i do think that the reputation is that of troubleshooter. he got to hurricane situation, sandy, on the of it. he was there with the fleece getting to work. in the case of the bridge close ygs, four days in a row. four hours of shutdown. things happening. ambulances didn't get through. where's the troubleshooter then? what happened here in what's going on here? he didn't want to know. that's what it sounds like. >> i will have to make that the last word. we are out of time. thank you all. great topics that will continue. thanks once again. coming up, switching gears here. my colleague is here on how women are struggling to push back from the brink of poverty. her new shriver report with groundbreaking information and i

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here now, some here now some of this week's images to remember. this week's images to remember. coming up next here, 50 years since the war on poverty. women are doing it all. both bredwinners and caregivers and millions struggle financially. mariah shriver is here to unveil the startling results of the new report next. it's a new shriver report. we'll talk about it. dad, it says your afib puts you

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not caused by a heart valve problem... ...ask your doctor about reducing the risk of stroke with pradaxa. [ male announcer ] even more impressive than the research this man has at his disposal is how he puts it to work for his clients. morning. morning. thanks for meeting so early. come on in. [ male announcer ] it's how edward jones makes sense of investing. that's unacceptable. after 50 years, isn't it time to declare big government's war on poverty a failure? >> that was florida senator rubio from a video he released this week, 50 years ago that president lyndon johnson declared war on poverty. well now, a new report from nbc news special anchor maria shriver gives us an eye opening look at the financial struggles of millions of women in the u.s. it is the shriver report. maria is here to reveal the results. maria, welcome back.

>> thank you, david. >> before we have our conversation, i want toi look a the key findings. >> reporter: the troubled headline from the report, 1 in 3 american women live at or near the brink of poverty, 42 million million and 28 million children that depend on them living a medical illness, a missed paycheck, a broken down car away from economic ruin. the face of insecurity changed from 50 years ago when president johnson launched his war on poverty. the man who led that effort was mariah shriver's father, sergeant shriver. >> they're getting too little food, inadequate education, living in sub standard housing, but most of all, they have no chance of getting out of the condition they're in and joining the rest of american society. >> reporter: back then, the face of poverty was appalachia. today, it's mother's like cap katrina working as a nurse in a

senior center. >> hi, sir. are you done? >> yes, i am. >> reporter: her story is profiled in a new hbo documentary made for the shriver report. >> i'll be back tomorrow. >> 9.49 an hour for what we do. >> reporter: for millions of women for katrina, the dream of having it all has morphed into just hanging on. working mothers caught between their roles as breadwinners and primary care givers. >> you call us, dad? >> yeah. >> reporter: it is not the cleaver family of the 1950s anymore. today, only 20% of families have a father who works and a stay at home mom. now 4 out of every 10 families with children have mothers who are the primary or only breadwinner. and the report looked at how women on the brink view their own lives. 54% feel the harder i work, the more i fall behind. 60% feel the economy does not

work for people like me. 75% wish they had stayed in school longer. but these women are also optimistic. 62% believe their financial situation will get better in the next five years. >> and we're back with maria. good to see you. >> yeah. that's exciting. i think all of the women think that their lives can get better but a wake-up call to the united states 1 in 3 working women in this country are in economic peril. >> what i'm so curious about and what you write about in this report is women have arrived, have transformed society in so many ways, getting more power. becoming breadwinners. such a huge impact from leadership to consumer behavior and yet this. and yet the 1 in 3 on the brink. why? >> they don't have the advantages that other women have, just like men. so many of the women that responded to the poll said they wished they had stayed and gotten the education. that's a predictor of economic

peril. the message of this report is to women, as well, to say you must think of yourself as providers, not being provided for. you've got to stay in school. you have got to get your education. delay family planning as long as you can because those are prime indicators of ending up on the brink. >> we were talking about men's and women's roles changing in society and we'll do that and have that larger conversation because it's so interesting and so important. but this is -- this plays a role, right, in a huge way and how for one thing how women negotiate some of these difficulties at work with a tough schedule or not a lot of levera leverage. these are women leaning in and not stuck. >> these are women who feel like they don't have a foundation on stand on. they don't want to be told to reez for the suite. they don't have a foundation. two thirds of all worker that is are minimum wage are women. 70% of those women don't have one sick day. and the poll that we did which

was over 3,000 people said -- responded number one thing to make a difference is getting sick days. >> how do they negotiate better? the issues better. >> they have to come together. for those women, katrina, negotiating isn't even on the plate. trying to figure out how to take care of her kids, put food on the table. she's looking also to go back to school because she doesn't want to stay in the low paying job that she has. these are people trying to survive on minimum wage and not a living wage. >> this is so that the report itself is so interesting talking about it going through it and such a great resource and an interesting read at different levels. lebron james paying tribute to his mom and single mother. the role of men is interesting, single moms you talk about in this book. but men as caregivers has got to be a part of this conversation.

>> men are totally a part of this conversation in terms of raising their daughters, how they support their wives and partners and when's good for women at the center of the economy is also good for men. men need flexible hours, sick days because they're going to be caring for parents, as well. men need all of the things that the women need. these are smart family policies in this report. and i think if people are interested in the report, you can download it for free. and read about it. understand what these issues are. what we're saying is government and businesses have not kept up and we need to modernize our relationship to women. >> you heard marco rubio. conservatives want to be in the discussion of poverty and pronouncing the war of poverty by lyndon johnson a failure. where does government play a role? >> i would like to correct that, that the war of poverty was not a failure and daddy ran the war on poverty. many of the programs exist today. when the war on poverty was funded it was a success.

when the money was taken from the war on poverty and diverted to the war in vietnam, it lost the momentum. head start, vista, job corps, legal services for the poor, the people that benefited from those programs i don't think think it was a failure. but i think it's great that marc rubio, paul ryan and others are engaged in the debate right now. we want to ignite a conversation about low-income people. >> do they talk enough about women in particular? >> they haven't at all as far as i'm concerned and why i was happy to give the report to senator ryan. i hope marco rubio puts women at the center of the proposals they're putting forward but it's an issue to come together on. i learned by being a republican first lady there's a lot that states can do that's innovative, a lot of innovative things in nonprofits, in church groups and so i think that when democrats

and republicans can come together on these issues we will see movement. we'll see political will. but also, i think women who are 54% of the vote, they should come together and support men and women who are running for office who talk about these things. it's not the per view of democrats or just female politicians and elected leaders. men are v a lot to say about this, as well. >> maybe understanding it's the power of women is ultimately the power of our country, that not separating it out. >> absolutely not. i think women are at the center of our country. they're at the center as i said of electing the political leaders, the economy. they're in the center of the family and when women do well, men do well and the nation does well and they don't just support other women doing well but support the sons and daughters and i hope this ignites an entire conversation about women are doing really well and those that are on the margins. we call for women to be employers themselves. there's a lot that we can do

that involves personal responsibility, business and that involves government. so i would agree with rubio and ryan that it's not just the area of government but a lot that government can still do. >> you talk about your mother. she felt power about becoming a politician. >> in her day and age, that's where power was. today i believe power is in the streets and that washington responds to the power that comes up from the streets so i hope that people will read this report, take it in, talk about it at their kitchen tables and i hope parents talk to their daughters about being providers for themselves and their families. >> thank you. i'll do that. >> right away. >> when i get home. thank you. >> thank you, david. a reminder to our viewers. tomorrow morning, former defense secretary robert gates with the first live interview since the release of "duty" we have talked about today. here next week, i'll interview secretary gates about his book. that is all for today. if it's sunday, it's "meet the

press." breaking news, iran and the u.s. and world pow earls agree on a date to halt nuclear program. the effort begins in just days. will it be successful? we are live with the details. good sunday afternoon. you are watching msnbc. also today, republicans break their silence on the scandals of chris christie. >> not one single link to chris christie has been found. >> this is a story that's still developing and we should reserve judgment. >> he was in campaign mode at the time during campaign mode you miss a lot of things. >> it's hard for democrats to turn this into an issue. the question is whether the facts are going to turn it into an issue. >> personnel is policy. and the people that you h